A fellow who bills himself as an industry marketing expert recently sent me an email. It was a very well put together, nice-looking offer to procure more than 200 marketing ideas. To learn them all, I had to provide him with my contact information. This guy made a critical error, from my perspective. He sent three of his marketing ideas as a teaser. Two of the three advocated dishonesty to get prospects attention. They weren’t whopping lies, just a little shy of 100 percent true.

As the number of consumers using social-media networking sites continues to grow, FINRA has provided ongoing guidance for financial advisors wanting to promote their firms online without getting into trouble.

In financial services, not only does crime generally not pay, but being a serial regulatory offender often results in tougher regulatory scrutiny. That’s according to a press release from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Board of Governors.